A “Saturday Night Live” skit that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown was removed from the program’s website because it “didn’t meet out standards,” a spokesman for the show said Tuesday. An edited version of the skit will be re-posted online soon, the spokesman said.

The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculators and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse. At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom. Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as “People who should be shot.”

“Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn’t meet our standards,” a spokesman for the program said in an e-mail message today. “We took it down and made some minor changes, and it will be back online soon.”

In an interview with Gold, the showâ€™s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said the Sandlers were distraught but had not demanded the changes. He noted the â€œPeople who should be shotâ€ line was deleted as was a reference to their â€œcorrupt activities.â€

But a comparison of the two versions shows that actually a little more than that was cut. What also was excised was any mention of the involvement of Massachusettsâ€™ Rep. Frank in the Sandler subprime messâ€¦

In the original skit Sandler addresses Frank, saying, â€œAnd thank you Congressman Frank as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.â€

To which Frank replies enthusiastically, â€œNot at all!â€

Let’s face it folks, there has been “PRESSURE” placed on NBC to edit or even remove the skit. They have resisted because of the overt censorship of the flap but made changes as a remedy when the lawsuits come. And, the will.

The fact is the Democrats, notably Congressman Barney Frank and their left-wing billionaire friends of George Soros and Herbert/Marion Sandler have been complicit in the financial meltdown which is at hand. The skit offered cynical transparency.

The parties involved did not like it and attempted to quash the speech. But…..the SNL skit had already aired.